Seneca: FABULAE

TANTALI VMBRA: Quis inferorum sede ab infausta extrahit
auido fugaces ore captantem cibos?
quis male deorum Tantalo inuisas domos
ostendit iterum? peius inuentum est siti
arente in undis aliquid et peius fame
hiante semper?

THE SHADE OF TANTALUS: Who draws me out from the ill-omened seat of the infernal ones,
with an avid mouth trying to catch fugitive foods?
Who shows again to Tantalus the houses of the gods, hateful to me?
Has anything worse been found than thirst, parching amid the waves,
and worse than hunger ever gaping?

Sisyphi numquid lapis
gestandus umeris lubricus nostris uenit
aut membra celeri differens cursu rota,
aut poena Tityi qui specu uasto patens
uisceribus atras pascit effossis aues 10
et nocte reparans quidquid amisit die
plenum recenti pabulum monstro iacet?
in quod malum transcribor? O quisquis noua
supplicia functis durus umbrarum arbiter
disponis, addi si quid ad poenas potest
quod ipse custos carceris diri horreat,
quod maestus Acheron paueat, ad cuius metum
nos quoque tremamus, quaere.

Does the stone of Sisyphus
come, slippery, to be borne on our shoulders,
or the wheel that, with swift course, pulls apart the limbs,
or the punishment of Tityus, who, lying open in a vast cavern,
feeds black birds on his dug-out entrails 10
and, repairing by night whatever he lost by day,
lies as a full, fresh fodder for the monster?
Into what evil am I transferred? O whoever, harsh arbiter of the shades,
you assign new punishments for the departed,
if anything can be added to the penalties
which the very keeper of the dire prison would shudder at,
which gloomy Acheron would fear, at whose terror
we too may tremble, seek it.

Iam nostra subit
e stirpe turba quae suum uincat genus
ac me innocentem faciat et inausa audeat. 20
regione quidquid impia cessat loci
complebo; numquam stante Pelopea domo
Minos uacabit. FVRIA: Perge, detestabilis
umbra, et penates impios furiis age.

Now there rises from our stock a crowd which will surpass its own race
and make me innocent, and dare the undared. 20
whatever of place the impious region leaves idle
I will fill; never, while the Pelopid house stands,
will Minos be at leisure. FURY: Proceed, detestable
shade, and drive the impious household gods with Furies.

certetur omni scelere et alterna uice
stringatur ensis; nec sit irarum modus
pudorue, mentes caecus instiget furor,
rabies parentum duret et longum nefas
eat in nepotes; nec uacet cuiquam uetus
odisse crimen: semper oriatur nouum, 30

let the contest be waged with every crime, and in alternating turn
let the sword be drawn; nor let there be any limit to angers
or any shame; let blind furor goad the minds,
let the rabidity of parents endure and the long nefas
go into the grandchildren; nor let there be leisure for anyone
to hate the old crime: let a new one always arise, 30

nec unum in uno, dumque punitur scelus,
crescat. Superbis fratribus regna excidant
repetantque profugos; dubia uiolentae domus
fortuna reges inter incertos labet;
miser ex potente fiat, ex misero potens,
fluctuque regnum casus assiduo ferat.
ob scelera pulsi, cum dabit patriam deus
in scelera redeant, sintque tam inuisi omnibus
quam sibi; nihil sit ira quod uetitum putet:
fratrem expauescat frater et natum parens 40
natusque patrem, liberi pereant male,
peius tamen nascantur; immineat uiro
infesta coniunx, bella trans pontum uehant,
effusus omnis irriget terras cruor,
supraque magnos gentium exultet duces
Libido uictrix.

nor let there be one in one, and while crime is punished,
let it grow. Let kingdoms fall from the proud brothers
and fetch back the exiles; let the doubtful fortune of the violent house
totter between uncertain kings;
let a wretch be made from the powerful, and from the wretched, powerful,
and let the realm be borne by the continual surge of chance.
driven out for crimes, when god grants them their fatherland
let them return into crimes, and let them be as hated by all
as by themselves; let there be nothing that Anger deems forbidden:
let brother be terrified of brother, and parent of son, 40
and son of father; let children perish badly,
yet let worse be born; let a hostile spouse loom over the man,
let them carry wars across the sea,
let all outpoured gore irrigate the lands,
and above the great leaders of nations let victorious Libido exult.

Impia stuprum in domo
leuissimum sit; fratris et fas et fides
iusque omne pereat. Non sit a uestris malis
immune caelum - cur micant stellae polo
flammaeque seruant debitum mundo decus? 50
nox alta fiat, excidat caelo dies.
misce penates, odia caedes funera
accerse et imple Tantalo totam domum.

Let impious defilement in the house be very slight;
let both divine sanction and good faith toward a brother
and all law perish. Let heaven not be immune from your evils - why do the stars glitter in the sky
and the flames preserve the due adornment to the world? 50
let deep night be made, let day fall from heaven.
confound the Penates, hatreds slaughters funerals
summon, and fill the whole house with Tantalus.

ornetur altum columen et lauro fores
laetae uirescant, dignus aduentu tuo
splendescat ignis - Thracium fiat nefas
maiore numero. Dextra cur patrui uacat?
nondum Thyestes liberos deflet suos?

let the lofty roof-peak be adorned and let the glad doors grow green with laurel
let a fire, worthy of your advent, shine splendidly - let the Thracian nefarious deed be done in greater number.
Why is the uncle’s right hand vacant?
does Thyestes not yet bewail his own children?

et quando tollet? ignibus iam subditis
spument aena, membra per partes eant 60

and when will he lift it? with fires now set beneath
let the bronze cauldrons foam, let the members go part by part 60

discerpta, patrios polluat sanguis focos,
epulae instruantur - non noui sceleris tibi
conuiua uenies. Liberum dedimus diem
tuamque ad istas soluimus mensas famem;
ieiunia exple, mixtus in Bacchum cruor
spectante te potetur; inueni dapes
quas ipse fugeres - siste, quo praeceps ruis?
VMBRA TANTALI: Ad stagna et amnes et recedentes aquas
labrisque ab ipsis arboris plenae fugas.

let them be torn apart; let blood pollute the ancestral hearths,
let banquets be set — you will come as a guest to no novel crime.
We have given a day to Liber,
and we have reserved your hunger for those tables;
fill up your fasts; blood, mixed into Bacchus,
shall be quaffed with you looking on; I have found viands
which you yourself would flee — stop, whither headlong do you rush?
SHADE OF TANTALUS: To the pools and rivers and receding waters,
and the flights of the tree full of fruit from my very lips.

abire in atrum carceris liceat mei 70
cubile, liceat, si parum uideor miser,
mutare ripas: alueo medius tuo,
Phlegethon, relinquar igneo cinctus freto.
Quicumque poenas lege fatorum datas
pati iuberis, quisquis exeso iaces
pauidus sub antro iamque uenturi times
montis ruinam, quisquis auidorum feros
rictus leonum et dira Furiarum agmina
implicitus horres, quisquis immissas faces
semiustus abigis, Tantali uocem excipe 80
properantis ad uos: credite experto mihi,
amate poenas. Quando continget mihi
effugere superos?

let it be permitted to depart into the black couch of my prison 70
let it be permitted, if I seem too little wretched,
to change banks: midstream in your channel,
Phlegethon, let me be left, girded by a fiery strait.
Whoever by the law of the fates you are ordered
to suffer punishments granted, whoever you lie
fearful beneath an eaten-out cavern and already you fear
the ruin of the mountain about to come, whoever the fierce
gapes of greedy lions and the dread ranks of the Furies
entangled you shudder at, whoever, half-burned, you drive away the hurled-in torches,
receive the voice of Tantalus hastening to you 80
believe me, an expert: love your punishments;
when will it befall me
to escape the gods above?

FVRIA: Ante perturba domum
inferque tecum proelia et ferri malum
regibus amorem, concute insano ferum
pectus tumultu. VMBRA TANTALI: Me pati poenas decet,
non esse poenam. Mittor ut dirus uapor
tellure rupta uel grauem populis luem
sparsura pestis?

FURY: First throw the house into turmoil,
and bring in with you battles and the baleful love of iron
for kings; shake the savage breast with insane tumult. SHADE OF TANTALUS: It befits me to suffer punishments,
not to be a punishment. Am I sent as a dire vapor
from earth burst open, or as a pestilence about to scatter a grievous plague upon peoples?

ducam in horrendum nefas
auus nepotes? magne diuorum parens 90

shall a grandsire lead his grandsons into horrendous nefariousness?
great parent of the gods 90

nosterque quamuis pudeat, ingenti licet
taxata poena lingua crucietur loquax,
nec hoc tacebo: moneo, ne sacra manus
uiolate caede neue furiali malo
aspergite aras. Stabo et arcebo scelus.
Quid ora terres uerbere et tortos ferox
minaris angues?

and though it shame us, even if the loquacious tongue be tortured with a huge assessed penalty,
I will not be silent of this either: I warn you, do not, O sacred hands,
violate with slaughter, nor sprinkle the altars with a Furial evil.
I will stand and ward off the crime. Why do you terrify faces with the scourge and, fierce one,
threaten twisted snakes?

Quid famem infixam intimis
agitas medullis? flagrat incensum siti
cor et perustis flamma uisceribus micat.
Sequor.

Why do you agitate the hunger infixed in the inmost marrows?
The heart blazes, incensed with thirst,
and, with the viscera scorched, the flame flashes.
I follow.

FVRIA: Hunc, hunc furorem diuide in totam domum. 100
sic, sic ferantur et suum infensi inuicem
sitiant cruorem. Sentit introitus tuos
domus et nefando tota contactu horruit.
actum est abunde!

FURY: This, this furor, spread it through the whole house. 100
thus, thus let them be driven, and, hostile, let them in turn
thirst for each other’s blood. The house feels your entries,
and as a whole shuddered at the unspeakable contact.
It is more than enough!

gradere ad infernos specus
amnemque notum; iam tuum maestae pedem
terrae grauantur: cernis ut fontis liquor
introrsus actus linquat, ut ripae uacent
uentusque raras igneus nubes ferat?
pallescit omnis arbor ac nudus stetit 110
fugiente pomo ramus, et qui fluctibus
illinc propinquis Isthmos atque illinc fremit
uicina gracili diuidens terra uada,
longe remotos latus exaudit sonos.
iam Lerna retro cessit et Phoronides
latuere uenae nec suas profert sacer
Alpheos undas et Cithaeronis iuga
stant parte nulla cana deposita niue
timentque ueterem nobiles Argi sitim.

go to the infernal caverns
and the well-known river; already the sorrowful lands
are weighed down by your step: do you see how the water of the spring,
driven inward, leaves off, how the banks are empty,
and a fiery wind bears thin clouds?
every tree grows pale and the branch stood naked 110
with the fruit fleeing, and the Isthmus, which on this side and on that
roars with the nearby waves, dividing the neighboring shallows
by a slender strip of land, with its flank hears far-removed sounds.
now Lerna has withdrawn backward and the veins of Phoronis
have lain hidden, nor does holy Alpheus bring forth his waves,
and the ridges of Cithaeron stand in no part hoary,
with the snow laid aside, and the noble Argives fear their ancient thirst.

en ipse Titan dubitat an iubeat sequi 120

behold, the Titan himself hesitates whether to order to follow 120

cogatque habenis ire periturum diem.

and compel with reins the day doomed to perish to go.

CHORVS: Argos de superis si quis Achaicum
Pisaeasque domos curribus inclitas,
Isthmi si quis amat regna Corinthii,
et portus geminos et mare dissidens,
si quis Taygeti conspicuas niues,
quas cum Sarmaticus tempore frigido
in summis Boreas composuit iugis,
aestas ueliferis soluit Etesiis,
quem tangit gelido flumine lucidus 130
Alpheos, stadio notus Olympico,
aduertat placidum numen et arceat,
alternae scelerum ne redeant uices
nec succedat auo deterior nepos
et maior placeat culpa minoribus.
tandem lassa feros exuat impetus
sicci progenies impia Tantali.
peccatum satis est; fas ualuit nihil
aut commune nefas.

CHORUS: If anyone loves Achaean Argos from on high,
and the Pisan homes renowned for chariots,
if anyone loves the realms of the Corinthian Isthmus,
and its twin harbors and the sundering sea,
if anyone (loves) the conspicuous snows of Taygetus,
which, when Sarmatian Boreas in the chilly season
has heaped upon the highest ridges,
summer with the sail-bearing Etesians loosens,
which the bright Alpheus touches with its icy stream, 130
known by the Olympic stadion,—
let the placid divinity turn its attention and ward off,
lest alternating turns of crimes return,
nor let a worse grandson succeed his grandsire,
and let not greater guilt be pleasing to the younger.
At length let the impious offspring of dry Tantalus shed its savage impulses, grown weary.
There has been sin enough; lawful right has availed nothing—
but the shared wrong.

Proditus occidit
deceptor domini Myrtilus, et fide 140
uectus qua tulerat nobile reddidit
mutato pelagus nomine: notior
nulla est Ioniis fabula nauibus.
exceptus gladio paruulus impio
dum currit patrium natus ad osculum,
immatura focis uictima concidit
diuisusque tua est, Tantale, dextera,
mensas ut strueres hospitibus deis.
hos aeterna fames persequitur cibos,
hos aeterna sitis; nec dapibus feris 150

Betrayed, the deceiver of his lord, Myrtilus, perished; and, borne by the pledge by which he had carried, he made the sea renowned with its name changed: no tale is more known to Ionian ships.
A little one, caught by an impious sword while he runs to a paternal kiss, the son fell as an untimely victim at the hearths, and by your right hand, Tantalus, he was divided, that you might array tables for the gods as guests. These foods eternal hunger pursues, these eternal thirst; nor by savage banquets 150

decerni potuit poena decentior.
Stat lassus uacuo gutture Tantalus;
impendet capiti plurima noxio
Phineis auibus praeda fugacior;
hinc illinc grauidis frondibus incubat
et curuata suis fetibus ac tremens
alludit patulis arbor hiatibus.
haec, quamuis auidus nec patiens morae,
deceptus totiens tangere neglegit
obliquatque oculos oraque comprimit 160
inclusisque famem dentibus alligat.

There could have been decreed a more decent penalty.
Tantalus stands weary with a void gullet;
over his guilty head there impends a prey more fugacious than for the Phinean birds;
on this side and that it broods with gravid leaves,
and, bowed by its own fruits and trembling,
the tree dallies with his patulous openings.
he, although avid and not patient of delay,
deceived so often, neglects to touch it,
and slants his eyes aside and compresses his lips 160
and with his teeth shut he binds his hunger fast.

sed tunc diuitias omne nemus suas
demittit propius pomaque desuper
insultant foliis mitia languidis
accenduntque famem, quae iubet irritas
exercere manus. Has ubi protulit
et falli libuit, totus in arduum
autumnus rapitur siluaque mobilis.
instat deinde sitis non leuior fame;
qua cum percaluit sanguis et igneis 170
exarsit facibus, stat miser obuios
fluctus ore petens, quos profugus latex
auertit sterili deficiens uado
conantemque sequi deserit; hic bibit
altum de rapido gurgite puluerem.

but then every grove lets down its own riches
nearer, and the fruits from above
soft assail the languid leaves
and ignite hunger, which bids ineffectual
hands to be exercised. These, when he has stretched them forth
and it has delighted to deceive, the whole
autumn is snatched aloft and the shifting woodland.
then thirst presses on, no lighter than hunger;
whereupon, when his blood has grown very warm and with igneous 170
torches has flared, the wretch stands, seeking with his mouth
the waves facing him, which the fugitive water
turns aside, failing in a sterile shoal,
and abandons him trying to follow; here he drinks
deep dust from the swift whirlpool.

ATREVS: Ignaue, iners, eneruis et (quod maximum
probrum tyranno rebus in summis reor)
inulte, post tot scelera, post fratris dolos
fasque omne ruptum questibus uanis agis
iratus Atreus? fremere iam totus tuis 180
debebat armis orbis et geminum mare
utrimque classes agere, iam flammis agros
lucere et urbes decuit ac strictum undique
micare ferrum. Tota sub nostro sonet
Argolica tellus equite; non siluae tegant
hostem nec altis montium structae iugis
arces; relictis bellicum totus canat
populus Mycenis, quisquis inuisum caput
tegit ac tuetur, clade funesta occidat.

ATREVS: Coward, inert, enervate, and (which I reckon the greatest reproach for a tyrant in the highest affairs) unavenged, after so many crimes, after a brother’s deceits and all right broken, do you, angry Atreus, proceed with vain complaints?
already the whole world ought to roar with your arms, and the twin sea
to drive fleets on both sides, now it was fitting for fields
and cities to shine with flames, and for drawn steel to flash on every side.
Let all the Argolic land resound beneath our cavalry;
let not forests cover the enemy, nor citadels built on the high ridges
of the mountains; with Mycenae left behind, let the whole people sound the war-signal,
whoever covers and protects the hated head,
let him perish with deadly ruin.

haec ipsa pollens incliti Pelopis domus 190
ruat uel in me, dummodo in fratrem ruat.
Age, anime, fac quod nulla posteritas probet,
sed nulla taceat. Aliquod audendum est nefas
atrox, cruentum, tale quod frater meus
suum esse mallet.

let this very powerful house of illustrious Pelops 190
collapse even upon me, provided that it collapse upon my brother.
Come, my spirit, do what no posterity will approve,
but none will keep silent about. Some nefarious deed must be dared—
atrocious, bloody—such that my brother would prefer
it to be his own.

Scelera non ulcisceris,
nisi uincis. Et quid esse tam saeuum potest
quod superet illum? numquid abiectus iacet?

You do not avenge crimes,
unless you conquer. And what can be so savage
as to surpass him? Does he lie abject?

numquid secundis patitur in rebus modum,
fessis quietem? noui ego ingenium uiri
indocile; flecti non potest- frangi potest. 200

Does he allow in prosperous affairs a measure,
rest to the weary? I know the man's temper
indocile; it cannot be bent- it can be broken. 200

proinde antequam se firmat aut uires parat,
petatur ultro, ne quiescentem petat.
aut perdet aut peribit: in medio est scelus
positum occupanti. SATELLES: Fama te populi nihil
aduersa terret?

therefore before he strengthens himself or prepares his forces,
let him be attacked first, lest he attack one who is quiet.
either he will destroy or he will perish: in the middle the crime lies,
set there for the one who seizes it. ATTENDANT: Does the people's adverse report not
frighten you?

ATREVS: Maximum hoc regni bonum est,
quod facta domini cogitur populus sui
tam ferre quam laudare. SATELLES: Quos cogit metus
laudare, eosdem reddit inimicos metus.
at qui fauoris gloriam ueri petit,
animo magis quam uoce laudari uolet. 210
ATREVS: Laus uera et humili saepe contingit uiro,
non nisi potenti falsa.

ATREUS: This is the maximum good of the realm,
that the people of its lord is compelled
as much to bear as to praise his deeds. ATTENDANT: Those whom fear compels
to praise, the same fear renders enemies. But he who seeks the glory of true favor,
will wish to be praised more in spirit than in voice. 210
ATREUS: True praise often befalls a humble man,
false praise none but the powerful.

Quod nolunt uelint.
SATELLES: Rex uelit honesta: nemo non eadem uolet.
ATREVS: Vbicumque tantum honesta dominanti licent,
precario regnatur.

Let them will what they do not will.
SATELLES: Let the king will honorable things: no one will fail to will the same.
ATREVS: Wherever only honorable things are permitted to the one dominating, one reigns by sufferance.

SATELLES: Vbi non est pudor
nec cura iuris sanctitas pietas fides,
instabile regnum est. ATREVS: Sanctitas pietas fides
priuata bona sunt; qua iuuat reges eant.
SATELLES: Nefas nocere uel malo fratri puta.

SATELLES: Where there is no modesty,
nor care for law, nor sanctity, piety, faith,
the kingdom is unstable. ATREVS: Sanctity, piety, faith
are private goods; let them go where they help kings.
SATELLES: Account it nefarious to harm even an evil brother.

ATREVS: Fas est in illo quidquid in fratre est nefas. 220
quid enim reliquit crimine intactum aut ubi
sceleri pepercit? coniugem stupro abstulit
regnumque furto: specimen antiquum imperi
fraude est adeptus, fraude turbauit domum.
est Pelopis altis nobile in stabulis pecus,
arcanus aries, ductor opulenti gregis,
cuius per omne corpus effuso coma
dependet auro, cuius e tergo noui
aurata reges sceptra Tantalici gerunt;
possessor huius regnat, hunc tantae domus 230
fortuna sequitur.

ATREVS: Whatever is nefarious against a brother is right against that man. 220
For what has he left untouched by crime, or where
has he spared wickedness? He stole my wife by defilement,
and the kingdom by theft: the ancient emblem of imperium
he gained by fraud; by fraud he threw the house into turmoil.
There is in Pelops’ lofty stalls a noble beast,
a secret ram, leader of a wealthy flock,
whose fleece, poured forth as gold, hangs over his whole body,
from whose back the new Tantalid kings bear their gilded scepters;
the possessor of this one reigns; him the fortune of so great a house 230
attends.

Tuta seposita sacer
in parte carpit prata, quae cludit lapis
fatale saxeo pascuum muro tegens.
hunc facinus ingens ausus assumpta in scelus
consorte nostri perfidus thalami auehit.
Hinc omne cladis mutuae fluxit malum:
per regna trepidus exul erraui mea,
pars nulla nostri tuta ab insidiis uacat,
corrupta coniunx, imperi quassa est fides,
domus aegra, dubius sanguis et certi nihil 240

Safe, set apart, the sacred beast
in a section crops the meadows which a stone encloses,
covering the fatal pasture with a stony wall.
This one, a perfidious man, having dared an enormous crime,
with a consort assumed into the crime—the partner of our marriage-bed—carries it off.
From here flowed every evil of our mutual ruin:
through my own realms I, a trembling exile, have wandered,
no part of ours lies safe, free from ambush;
the spouse corrupted, the faith of the empire is shattered,
the house sick, the blood dubious, and nothing certain 240

nisi frater hostis. Quid stupes? tandem incipe
animosque sume: Tantalum et Pelopem aspice;
ad haec manus exempla poscuntur meae.

unless a brother is a foe. Why do you stand stupefied? At last, begin,
and take courage: look upon Tantalus and Pelops;
for such exemplars my hands are called for.

profare, dirum qua caput mactem uia.
SATELLES: Ferro peremptus spiritum inimicum expuat.
ATREVS: De fine poenae loqueris; ego poenam uolo.

speak forth, by what way I may immolate the dire head.
SATELLES: Slain by steel, let him spit out his inimical spirit.
ATREVS: You speak of the end of the penalty; I want the penalty.

perimat tyrannus lenis: in regno meo
mors impetratur. SATELLES: Nulla te pietas mouet?
ATREVS: Excede, Pietas, si modo in nostra domo
umquam fuisti.

let a gentle tyrant slay: in my kingdom
death is obtained. SATELLES: Does no Piety move you?
ATREVS: Depart, Piety, if indeed in our house
you ever were.

Dira Furiarum cohors 250
discorsque Erinys ueniat et geminas faces
Megaera quatiens. Non satis magno meum
ardet furore pectus, impleri iuuat
maiore monstro. SATELLES: Quid noui rabidus struis?

Let the dire cohort of the Furies 250
and the discordant Erinys come, and Megaera brandishing twin torches.
My breast does not burn with a fury great enough; it delights me to be filled
with a greater monster. SATELLES: What new thing, rabid one, are you contriving?

ATREVS: Nil quod doloris capiat assueti modum;
nullum relinquam facinus et nullum est satis.
SATELLES: Ferrum? ATREVS: Parum est.

ATREVS: Nothing that can take the measure of pain grown accustomed; I will leave no crime, and none is enough.
SATELLES: Iron? ATREVS: Too little.

SATELLES: Quid ignis? ATREVS: Etiamnunc parum est.
SATELLES: Quonam ergo telo tantus utetur dolor?

ATTENDANT: What about fire? ATREUS: Even now it is too little.
ATTENDANT: With what weapon, then, will such great grief arm itself?

ATREVS: Ipso Thyeste. SATELLES: Maius hoc ira est malum.
ATREVS: Fateor.

ATREVS: With Thyestes himself. SATELLES: This is a greater evil than ire.
ATREVS: I confess.

Tumultus pectora attonitus quatit 260
penitusque uoluit; rapior et quo nescio,
sed rapior. Imo mugit e fundo solum,
tonat dies serenus ac totis domus
ut fracta tectis crepuit et moti lares
uertere uultum: fiat hoc, fiat nefas
quod, di, timetis. SATELLES: Facere quid tandem paras?

A thunder-struck tumult shakes my breast 260
and rolls it deep within; I am swept away, and whither I know not,
but I am swept away. From its lowest depth the ground bellows,
the clear day thunders, and the house in all its parts
has rattled as if with roofs shattered, and the stirred Lares
have turned their face: let this be, let the nefarious deed be done
which, gods, you fear. SATELLES: What, then, do you prepare to do?

ATREVS: Nescio quid animus maius et solito amplius
supraque fines moris humani tumet
instatque pigris manibus - haud quid sit scio,
sed grande quiddam est. Ita sit. Hoc, anime, occupa 270
dignum est Thyeste facinus et dignum Atreo,
quod uterque faciat.

ATREVS: I know not what the spirit, greater and beyond the accustomed,
and it swells above the bounds of human custom,
and presses upon my sluggish hands — I know not what it is,
but it is something grand. So be it. This, my soul, seize 270
it is a deed worthy of Thyestes and worthy of Atreus,
which either one may commit.

Vidit infandas domus
Odrysia mensas - fateor, immane est scelus,
sed occupatum; maius hoc aliquid dolor
inueniat. Animum Daulis inspira parens
sororque; causa est similis; assiste et manum
impelle nostram. Liberos auidus pater
gaudensque laceret et suos artus edat.

The Odrysian house beheld unspeakable banquets— I confess, it is a monstrous crime, but one already preempted; let pain find something greater than this. Daulian mother and sister, inspire my spirit; the cause is similar; stand by and impel our hand. Let a father, avid and rejoicing, tear his children and eat his own limbs.

bene est, abunde est: hic placet poenae modus
tantisper. Vbinam est? Tam diu cur innocens 280

it is well, enough and to spare: this measure of penalty pleases
for the time being. Where is he? Why for so long innocent 280

uersatur Atreus? tota iam ante oculos meos
imago caedis errat, ingesta orbitas
in ora patris - anime, quid rursus times
et ante rem subsidis? Audendum est, age!:
quod est in isto scelere praecipuum nefas,
hoc ipse faciet.

is Atreus wavering? already the whole image of slaughter wanders before my eyes, orphanhood heaped into the father’s mouth - spirit, why again do you fear and sink back before the deed? We must dare, come!: that which in this crime is the principal unspeakable wrong, this he himself will do.

SATELLES: Sed quibus captus dolis
nostros dabit perductus in laqueos pedem?
inimica credit cuncta. ATREVS: Non poterat capi,
nisi capere uellet.

SATELLES: But by what wiles, once caught, will he, led in, set his foot into our snares?
He deems all things inimical. ATREVS: He could not be captured,
unless he should wish to capture.

Regna nunc sperat mea:
hac spe minanti fulmen occurret Ioui, 290
hac spe subibit gurgitis tumidi minas
dubiumque Libycae Syrtis intrabit fretum,
hac spe, quod esse maximum retur malum,
fratrem uidebit. SATELLES: Quis fidem pacis dabit?
cui tanta credet?

Now he hopes for my realms:
with this hope he will run to meet the thunderbolt of threatening Jove, 290
with this hope he will undergo the threats of the swollen gulf
and will enter the doubtful strait of the Libyan Syrtis,
with this hope, what he thinks to be the greatest evil,
he will look upon his brother. SATELLES: Who will give a pledge of peace?
to whom will he entrust so great a thing?

ATREVS: Credula est spes improba.
natis tamen mandata quae patruo ferant
dabimus: relictis exul hospitiis uagus
regno ut miserias mutet atque Argos regat
ex parte dominus. Si nimis durus preces
spernet Thyestes, liberos eius rudes 300
malisque fessos grauibus et faciles capi
prece commouebunt.

ATREVS: Shameless hope is credulous.
Yet we will give to the sons mandates to bear to their uncle:
that, a wandering exile with his hostings left behind,
he may exchange miseries for a kingdom and rule Argos
as lord in part. If, too hard, Thyestes spurns entreaties,
his sons—raw, wearied by grievous ills, and easy to be caught
by entreaty—will be moved. 300

Hinc uetus regni furor,
illinc egestas tristis ac durus labor
quamuis rigentem tot malis subigent uirum.
SATELLES: Iam tempus illi fecit aerumnas leues.
ATREVS: Erras: malorum sensus accrescit die.

From here the old frenzy for rule,
from there sad want and hard labor
will subjugate the man, though rigid from so many evils.
SATELLES: Now time has made his hardships light.
ATREVS: You err: the sense of evils increases by the day.

leue est miserias ferre, perferre est graue.
SATELLES: Alios ministros consili tristis lege.
Peiora iuuenes facile praecepta audiunt.

light it is to bear miseries; to endure them is grave.
SATELLES: Choose other ministers of the sad counsel.
The young easily listen to worse precepts.

In patre facient quidquid in patruo doces; 310
saepe in magistrum scelera redierunt sua.
ATREVS: Vt nemo doceat fraudis et sceleris uias,
regnum docebit. Ne mali fiant times?

They will do to the father whatever you teach in the paternal uncle; 310
often their crimes have returned upon the teacher himself.
ATREVS: So that no one may teach the ways of fraud and crime,
the kingship will teach. Do you fear that they may become evil?

nascuntur. Istud quod uocas saeuum asperum,
agique dure credis et nimium impie,
fortasse et illic agitur. SATELLES: Hanc fraudem scient
nati parari?

they are born. That which you call savage, harsh,
and believe to be done harshly and too impiously,
perhaps it is being done there as well. SATELLES: Will the sons know
this fraud is being prepared?

ATREVS: Tacita tam rudibus fides
non est in annis. Detegent forsan dolos:
tacere multis discitur uitae malis.
SATELLES: Ipsosne, per quos fallere alium cogitas, 320
falles?

ATREVS: A tacit trust is not in years so raw;
they will perhaps detect the wiles:
silence is learned through many ills of life.
SATELLES: Those very ones, through whom you are thinking to deceive another, 320
will you deceive?

ATREVS: Vt ipsi crimine et culpa uacent.
quid enim necesse est liberos sceleri meo
inserere? per nos odia se nostra explicent.

ATREUS: That they themselves may be void of crime and fault.
For what necessity is there to insert the children into my crime?
Through us let our hatreds unroll themselves.

male agis, recedis, anime! Si parcis tuis,
parces et illis. Consili Agamemnon mei
sciens minister fiat et fratri sciens
Menelaus adsit.

You do ill; you withdraw, spirit! If you spare your own,
you will spare them as well. Let Agamemnon, knowing, become the minister of my counsel,
and let Menelaus, knowing, be present to his brother.

Prolis incertae fides
ex hoc petatur scelere: Si bella abnuunt
et gerere nolunt odia, si patruum uocant,
pater est. Eatur! Multa sed trepidus solet 330

Let the proof of uncertain progeny be sought from this crime: if they refuse wars and are unwilling to bear hatreds, if they call him uncle, he is the father. Let us go! But a fearful man is wont 330

detegere uultus, magna nolentem quoque
consilia produnt: nesciant quantae rei
fiant ministri. Nostra tu coepta occules.
SATELLES: Haud sum monendus: ista nostro in pectore
fides timorque, sed magis claudet fides.

to uncover faces, great counsels betray even the unwilling: let the ministers not know of how great a matter they become ministers. You will conceal our undertakings.
ATTENDANT: I am not to be admonished: those are, in my breast, loyalty and fear, but loyalty will seal it more.

CHORVS: Tandem regia nobilis,
antiqui genus Inachi,
fratrum composuit minas.
Quis uos exagitat furor,
alternis dare sanguinem 340
et sceptrum scelere aggredi?
Nescitis, cupidi arcium,
regnum quo iaceat loco.

CHORUS: At last the noble royal house,
the lineage of ancient Inachus,
has set at rest the brothers’ menaces.
What frenzy harasses you,
to give blood by turns 340
and to assail the scepter by crime?
You do not know, greedy for citadels,
in what place the kingdom lies.

Regem non faciunt opes,
non uestis Tyriae color,
non frontis nota regia,
non auro nitidae fores:
rex est qui posuit metus
et diri mala pectoris.
Quem non ambitio impotens 350

Wealth does not make a king,
nor the Tyrian color of the garment,
nor the royal mark of the brow,
nor doors shining with gold:
a king is he who has set aside fears
and the dire evils of the heart.
Whom unchecked ambition does not 350

et numquam stabilis fauor
uulgi praecipitis mouet,
non quidquid fodit Occidens
aut unda Tagus aurea
claro deuehit alueo,
non quidquid Libycis terit
feruens area messibus,
quem non concutiet cadens
obliqui uia fulminis,
non Eurus rapiens mare                              360
aut saeuo rabidus freto
uentosi tumor Hadriae,
quem non lancea militis,
non strictus domuit chalybs,
qui tuto positus loco
infra se uidet omnia
occurritque suo libens
fato nec queritur mori.
Reges conueniant licet
qui sparsos agitant Dahas,                              370
qui rubri uada litoris
et gemmis mare lucidis
late sanguineum tenent,
aut qui Caspia fortibus
recludunt iuga Sarmatis,
certet Danuuii uadum
audet qui pedes ingredi
et (quocumque loco iacent)
Seres uellere nobiles,
mens regnum bona possidet.                              380

and the never‑steady favor
of the headlong crowd does not move him,
not whatever the Occident digs up
or the golden wave of the Tagus
carries down in its bright channel,
not whatever the burning threshing‑floor
grinds from Libyan harvests,
whom the falling path
of the slant thunderbolt will not shake,
not Eurus snatching the sea                              360
or the rabid swelling, with savage strait,
of the windy Adriatic,
whom not a soldier’s lance,
nor drawn chalybic steel has subdued,
who, placed in a safe position,
sees all things beneath himself
and gladly meets his own
fate and does not complain to die.
let kings assemble, though,
who harry the scattered Dahai,                              370
who hold the shallows of the red shore
and, with gleaming gems, the sea
far and wide blood‑red,
or who with brave Sarmatians
unbar the Caspian ridges,
let him vie who dares
to enter on foot the ford of the Danube,
and (in whatever place they lie)
the Seres, renowned for fleece—
a good mind possesses the kingdom.                              380

nihil ullis opus est equis,
nihil armis et inertibus
telis quae procul ingerit
Parthus, cum simulat fugas,
admotis nihil est opus
urbes sternere machinis
longe saxa rotantibus.
Rex est qui metuet nihil,
rex est qui cupiet nihil:
hoc regnum sibi quisque dat. 390
Stet quicumque uolet potens
aulae culmine lubrico:
me dulcis saturet quies;
obscuro positus loco
leni perfruar otio,
nullis nota Quiritibus
aetas per tacitum fluat.
Sic cum transierint mei
nullo cum strepitu dies,
plebeius moriar senex. 400
illi mors grauis incubat
qui, notus nimis omnibus,
ignotus moritur sibi.

there is no need of any horses,
no need of arms and the inert missiles
which the Parthian hurls from afar, when he simulates flights,
there is no need of engines brought up
to level cities, stones rolling from far.
A king is he who will fear nothing,
a king is he who will desire nothing:
this kingdom each man gives to himself. 390
Let whoever will stand powerful
on the slippery summit of the aula:
let sweet quiet sate me;
set in an obscure place
I shall thoroughly enjoy gentle leisure,
let my lifetime, known to no Quirites,
flow through the silent.
Thus, when my days have passed
with no din,
may I die a plebeian old man. 400
upon that man a heavy death broods
who, too well known to all,
dies unknown to himself.

THYESTES: Optata patriae tecta et Argolicas opes
miserisque summum ac maximum exulibus bonum,
tractum soli natalis et patrios deos
(si sunt tamen di) cerno, Cyclopum sacras
turres, labore maius humano decus,
celebrata iuueni stadia, per quae nobilis
palmam paterno non semel curru tuli. 410
occurret Argos, populus occurret frequens -
sed nempe et Atreus. Repete siluestres fugas
saltusque densos potius et mixtam feris
similemque uitam; clarus hic regni nitor
fulgore non est quod oculos falso auferat;
cum quod datur spectabis, et dantem aspice.

THYESTES: The longed-for roofs of the fatherland and Argolic wealth,
the highest and greatest good for wretched exiles,
the stretch of natal soil and the paternal gods
(if indeed there are gods) I discern—the Cyclopes’ sacred
towers, a glory greater than human labor;
the stadia celebrated to me as a youth, through which, noble,
I more than once bore the palm with my paternal chariot. 410
Argos will run to meet me, the people will run to meet in throngs—
but surely Atreus as well. Re-seek woodland flights
and rather the dense glades and a life mingled with
and akin to wild beasts; this bright brilliance of kingship
is not something that with false glare carries off the eyes;
when you look at what is given, look also at the giver.

modo inter illa, quae putant cuncti aspera,
fortis fui laetusque; nunc contra in metus
reuoluor; animus haeret ac retro cupit
corpus referre, moueo nolentem gradum. 420
TANTALVS: Pigro (quid hoc est?) genitor incessu stupet
uultumque uersat seque in incerto tenet.
THYESTES: Quid, anime, pendes, quidue consilium diu
tam facile torques?

just now among those things which all think harsh,
I was brave and glad; now, contrariwise, I revolve back into fears;
the mind sticks and desires to carry the body back;
I move an unwilling step. 420
TANTALUS: With sluggish gait (what is this?) the father is stupefied
and turns his face and holds himself in uncertainty.
THYESTES: Why, my soul, do you hang in suspense, or why do you for so long
twist a counsel so easy?

rebus incertissimis,
fratri atque regno, credis ac metuis mala
iam uicta, iam mansueta et aerumnas fugis
bene collocatas? Esse iam miserum iuuat.
reflecte gressum, dum licet, teque eripe.

amid most uncertain things,
to a brother and a kingdom you trust, and you fear evils
already vanquished, already tamed, and do you flee hardships
well collocated? It now pleases to be wretched.
turn back your step, while it is permitted, and snatch yourself away.

TANTALVS: Quae causa cogit, genitor, a patria gradum
referre uisa? cur bonis tantis sinum 430

TANTALUS: What cause, father, seems to compel you to turn your step back from your homeland?
why, amid such great goods, the bosom 430

subducis? ira frater abiecta redit
partemque regni reddit et lacerae domus
componit artus teque restituit tibi.
THYESTES: Causam timoris ipse quam ignoro exigis.

do you withdraw? with anger cast aside, your brother returns
part of the kingdom he gives back, and the torn house’s limbs
he composes, and restores you to yourself.
THYESTES: You demand the cause of fear which I myself do not know.

nihil timendum uideo, sed timeo tamen.
placet ire, pigris membra sed genibus labant,
alioque quam quo nitor abductus feror.
sic concitatam remige et uelo ratem
aestus resistens remigi et uelo refert.

I see nothing to be feared, yet I fear nonetheless.
It pleases me to go, but my limbs give way, my knees sluggish,
and I am abducted, borne to another place than that for which I strive.
Thus a raft, stirred by oarsman and sail,
the resisting tide carries back, against the oarsman and the sail.

TANTALVS: Euince quidquid obstat et mentem impedit 440
reducemque quanta praemia expectent uide.
pater, potes regnare. THYESTES: Cum possim mori.

TANTALUS: Overcome whatever obstructs and impedes the mind 440
and see what great rewards await the returned.
father, you can reign. THYESTES: Since I can die.

TANTALVS: Summa est potestas - THYESTES: Nulla, si cupias nihil.
TANTALVS: Natis relinques. THYESTES: Non capit regnum duos.

TANTALVS: Power is supreme - THYESTES: None, if you desire nothing.
TANTALVS: You will relinquish it to your children. THYESTES: A kingdom does not hold two.

TANTALVS: Miser esse mauult esse qui felix potest?
THYESTES: Mihi crede, falsis magna nominibus placent,
frustra timentur dura. Dum excelsus steti,
numquam pauere destiti atque ipsum mei
ferrum timere lateris.

TANTALVS: Would he who can be fortunate prefer to be miserable?
THYESTES: Believe me, great things please under false names; hard things are feared in vain. While I stood exalted,
I never ceased to be afraid, and to fear the very sword
at my own side.

O quantum bonum est
obstare nulli, capere securas dapes 450
humi iacentem! scelera non intrant casas,
tutusque mensa capitur angusta cibus;
uenenum in auro bibitur - expertus loquor:
malam bonae praeferre fortunam licet.
Non uertice alti montis impositam domum
et eminentem ciuitas humilis tremit
nec fulget altis splendidum tectis ebur
somnosque non defendit excubitor meos;
non classibus piscamur et retro mare
iacta fugamus mole nec uentrem improbum 460

O how great a good it is
to stand in the way of no one, to take secure banquets lying on the ground! 450
crimes do not enter cottages,
and at a narrow table safe food is taken;
poison is drunk in gold—I speak as one experienced:
one may prefer bad fortune to good.
No humble city trembles at a house set on the summit of a high mountain
and overhanging; nor does splendid ivory gleam on lofty roofs,
nor does a sentinel defend my sleep;
we do not fish with fleets and drive the sea backward
with a hurled mole, nor the shameless belly 460

alimus tributo gentium, nullus mihi
ultra Getas metatur et Parthos ager;
non ture colimur nec meae excluso Ioue
ornantur arae; nulla culminibus meis
imposita nutat silua, nec fumant manu
succensa multa stagna, nec somno dies
Bacchoque nox iungenda peruigili datur:
sed non timemur, tuta sine telo est domus
rebusque paruis magna praestatur quies.
immane regnum est posse sine regno pati. 470

nor do we feed, with the tribute of the nations, the shameless belly; no field is measured out for me
beyond the Getae and the Parthians; we are not worshiped with incense, nor, Jove excluded,
are my altars adorned; no forest set upon my rooftops sways,
nor do many pools, kindled by hand, smoke, nor is day given
to sleep and night to wakeful Bacchus to be joined:
but we are not feared; the house is safe without a weapon,
and by small means great rest is afforded.
it is an immense kingdom to be able to endure without a kingdom. 470

TANTALVS: Nec abnuendum est, si dat imperium deus.
nec appetendum est: frater ut regnes rogat.
THYESTES: Rogat?

TANTALVS: Nor must it be refused, if god gives sovereignty.
nor must it be sought: your brother asks that you reign.
THYESTES: He asks?

timendum est. Errat hic aliquis dolus.
TANTALVS: Redire pietas unde submota est solet,
reparatque uires iustus amissas amor.

We must be afraid. Some deceit is afoot here.
TANTALVS: Piety is wont to return whence it has been removed,
and just love repairs the lost strength.

THYESTES: Amat Thyesten frater? Aetherias prius
perfundet Arctos pontus et Siculi rapax
consistet aestus unda et Ionio seges
matura pelago surget et lucem dabit
nox atra terris, ante cum flammis aquae, 480
cum morte uita, cum mari uentus fidem
foedusque iungent. TANTALVS: Quam tamen fraudem times?

THYESTES: Does my brother love Thyestes? Sooner will the sea drench the aetherial Bears,
and the rapacious tide’s wave of the Sicilian sea stand still, and on the Ionian sea a ripe harvest will rise, and black night will give light to the lands, before waters with flames, 480
life with death, wind with sea will join faith and compact. TANTALVS: What fraud, however, do you fear?

THYESTES: Omnem: timori quem meo statuam modum?
tantum potest quantum odit. TANTALVS: In te quid potest?

THYESTES: Every kind: what limit shall I set to my fear?
He has as much power as his hatred. TANTALVS: What power has he over you?

THYESTES: Pro me nihil iam metuo: uos facitis mihi
Atrea timendum. TANTALVS: Decipi cautus times?
THYESTES: Serum est cauendi tempus in mediis malis.

THYESTES: For myself I now fear nothing: you make for me
Atreus to be feared. TANTALVS: Do you, being cautious, fear to be deceived?
THYESTES: The time for caution is too late in the midst of evils.

eatur. Vnum genitor hoc testor tamen:
ego uos sequor, non duco. TANTALVS: Respiciet deus
bene cogitata.

Let us go. One thing, father, I attest nevertheless:
I follow you, I do not lead. TANTALVS: The god will respect
well-cogitated things.

Perge non dubio gradu. 490
ATREVS: Plagis tenetur clausa dispositis fera:
et ipsum et una generis inuisi indolem
iunctam parenti cerno. Iam tuto in loco
uersantur odia.

Go on with an unhesitating step. 490
ATREVS: The beast is held fast, enclosed by snares disposed:
and both himself and, along with him, the offspring of the odious lineage,
joined to the parent, I discern. Now, in a safe place,
the hatreds are engaged.

Venit in nostras manus
tandem Thyestes, uenit, et totus quidem.
Vix tempero animo, uix dolor frenos capit.
sic, cum feras uestigat et longo sagax
loro tenetur Vmber ac presso uias
scrutatur ore, dum procul lento suem
odore sentit, paret et tacito locum 500

He has come into our hands
at last, Thyestes has come, and indeed entire.
I scarcely temper my mind; scarcely does grief take the reins.
thus, when he tracks wild beasts and, sagacious, on a long
leash the Umbrian is held, and with pressed mouth he
scrutinizes the ways, while from afar he senses the sow
by the slow odor, he is compliant and, in silence, makes the spot apparent. 500

rostro pererrat; praeda cum propior fuit,
ceruice tota pugnat et gemitu uocat
dominum morantem seque retinenti eripit.
cum sperat ira sanguinem, nescit tegi;
tamen tegatur. Aspice, ut multo grauis
squalore uultus obruat maestos coma.

he ranges over with his snout; when the prey has come nearer,
he fights with his whole neck and with a groan calls
his delaying master and tears himself from the one holding him back.
when ire hopes for blood, it does not know to be covered;
yet let it be covered. Look, how, heavy with much squalor,
the hair overwhelms the mournful features.

quam foeda iaceat barba. Praestetur fides.
Fratrem iuuat uidere.

how foul the beard lies. Let faith be kept.
It delights to see a brother.

Complexus mihi
redde expetitos. Quidquid irarum fuit
transierit; ex hoc sanguis ac pietas die 510
colantur, animis odia damnata excidant.
THYESTES: Diluere possem cuncta, nisi talis fores.

Restore to me
the longed-for embraces. Whatever anger there has been
let it pass; from this day forth let blood and pietas 510
be cultivated, let damned hatreds fall out of our minds.
THYESTES: I could wash away everything, were you only such.

sed fateor, Atreu, fateor, admisi omnia
quae credidisti. Pessimam causam meam
hodierna pietas fecit. Est prorsus nocens
quicumque uisus tam bono fratri est nocens.

but I confess, Atreus, I confess, I have committed everything
which you believed. Today’s pietas has made my case the worst.
He is altogether nocent whoever has seemed nocent to so good a brother.

lacrimis agendum est; supplicem primus uides;
hae te precantur pedibus intactae manus:
ponatur omnis ira et ex animo tumor
erasus abeat. Obsides fidei accipe 520
hos innocentes, frater. ATREVS: A genibus manum
aufer meosque potius amplexus pete.

It must be done with tears; you are the first to behold a suppliant;
these hands, as yet untouched by your feet, implore you:
let all anger be laid aside, and let the swelling, erased from your spirit, depart.
Accept as hostages of good faith 520
these innocents, brother. ATREVS: Take your hand from my knees,
and rather seek my embraces.

uos quoque, senum praesidia, tot iuuenes, meo
pendete collo. Squalidam uestem exue,
oculisque nostris parce, et ornatus cape
pares meis, laetusque fraterni imperi
capesse partem. Maior haec laus est mea,
fratri paternum reddere incolumi decus:
habere regnum casus est, uirtus dare.

You too, props of old men, so many youths, hang upon my neck.
Cast off your squalid garment,
and spare our eyes, and take ornaments equal to mine,
and, joyful, take up a share of the fraternal rule.
This is the greater praise for me: to restore to my brother the paternal honor unharmed;
to have a kingdom is chance; to give it is virtue.

THYESTES: Di paria, frater, pretia pro tantis tibi 530

THYESTES: Brother, may the gods grant rewards equal to such great things to you 530

meritis rependant. Regiam capitis notam
squalor recusat noster et sceptrum manus
infausta refugit. Liceat in media mihi
latere turba.

let them repay as merits deserve. The regal mark of the head
my squalor refuses, and the scepter my ill-omened hand
shuns. Let it be permitted for me to lie hidden in the midst
of the crowd.

ATREVS: Recipit hoc regnum duos.
THYESTES: Meum esse credo quidquid est, frater, tuum.
ATREVS: Quis influentis dona fortunae abnuit?

ATREUS: This kingdom admits two.
THYESTES: I believe that whatever is yours, brother, is mine.
ATREUS: Who refuses the gifts of in-flowing Fortune?

THYESTES: Expertus est quicumque quam facile effluant.
ATREVS: Fratrem potiri gloria ingenti uetas?
THYESTES: Tua iam peracta gloria est, restat mea;
respuere certum est regna consilium mihi.

THYESTES: Whoever has experienced it knows how easily they flow away.
ATREVS: Do you forbid a brother to obtain immense glory?
THYESTES: Your glory is already completed; mine remains;
to spurn kingdoms is my settled counsel.

540
ATREVS: Meam relinquam, nisi tuam partem accipis.
THYESTES: Accipio: regni nomen impositi feram,
sed iura et arma seruient mecum tibi.
ATREVS: Imposita capiti uincla uenerando gere;
ego destinatas uictimas superis dabo.

540
ATREVS: I will relinquish mine, unless you take your share.
THYESTES: I accept: I will bear the title of the imposed kingdom,
but the rights and the arms shall serve you along with me.
ATREVS: Bear upon your head the imposed bands with veneration;
I will give the destined victims to the gods above.

CHORVS: Credat hoc quisquam? ferus ille et acer
nec potens mentis truculentus Atreus
fratris aspectu stupefactus haesit.
nulla uis maior pietate uera est;
iurgia externis inimica durant, 550
quos amor uerus tenuit, tenebit.

CHORUS: Would anyone credit this? that fierce and keen,
and not master of his mind, the truculent Atreus
was stupefied and stuck fast at the sight of his brother.
no force is greater than true piety;
quarrels, inimical to outsiders, endure, 550
those whom true love has held, it will hold.

ira cum magnis agitata causis
gratiam rupit cecinitque bellum,
cum leues frenis sonuere turmae,
fulsit hinc illinc agitatus ensis,
quem mouet crebro furibundus ictu
sanguinem Mauors cupiens recentem -
opprimit ferrum manibusque iunctis
ducit ad pacem pietas negantes.
otium tanto subitum e tumultu 560

ire, when agitated by great causes,
ruptured grace and chanted war,
when the light squadrons rang with their reins,
the brandished sword flashed here and there,
which Mavors, furibund, moves with frequent stroke,
craving recent sanguine—
piety overmasters the iron, and with hands joined
leads the refusing to peace.
a sudden repose out of so great a tumult 560

quis deus fecit? modo per Mycenas
arma ciuilis crepuere belli;
pallidae natos tenuere matres,
uxor armato timuit marito,
cum manum inuitus sequeretur ensis,
sordidus pacis uitio quietae;
ille labentes renouare muros,
hic situ quassas stabilire turres,
ferreis portas cohibere claustris
ille certabat, pauidusque pinnis                               570
anxiae noctis uigil incubabat -
peior est bello timor ipse belli.
iam minae saeui cecidere ferri,
iam silet murmur graue classicorum,
iam tacet stridor litui strepentis;
alta pax urbi reuocata laetae est.
sic, ubi ex alto tumuere fluctus
Bruttium Coro feriente pontum,
Scylla pulsatis resonat cauernis
ac mare in portu timuere nautae                               580
quod rapax haustum reuomit Charybdis,
et ferus Cyclops metuit parentem
rupe feruentis residens in Aetnae,
ne superfusis uioletur undis
ignis aeternis resonans caminis,
et putat mergi sua posse pauper
regna Laertes Ithaca tremente -
si suae uentis cecidere uires,
mitius stagno pelagus recumbit;
alta, quae nauis timuit secare,                               590

what god has done this? just now throughout Mycenae
the arms of civil war clashed;
pale mothers held back their sons,
a wife feared her armed husband,
when the sword, unwilling, followed the hand,
foul with the defect of tranquil peace;
that man strove to renew the slipping walls,
this one to steady towers shaken by neglect,
to restrain the gates with iron bars
that man contended, and, fearful, upon the battlements                              570
the watchman brooded through the anxious night—
worse than war is the very fear of war.
now the threats of savage iron have fallen,
now the heavy murmur of the battle-trumpets is silent,
now the shriek of the blaring clarion is hushed;
lofty peace has been recalled to the joyful city.
thus, when from the deep the billows have swelled,
the Corus striking the Bruttian sea,
Scylla resounds with her smitten caverns,
and sailors have feared the sea in harbor                              580
because ravenous Charybdis vomits back the draught she gulped,
and the fierce Cyclops fears his parent,
sitting on the crag of seething Aetna,
lest by overflowing waves there be violated
the fire resounding in the eternal forges,
and poor Laertes thinks that his own realms can be drowned,
with Ithaca trembling—
if the winds’ own powers have fallen,
the sea reclines more mildly than a pool;
the deeps which the ship feared to cut,                              590

hinc et hinc fusis speciosa uelis
strata ludenti patuere cumbae,
et uacat mersos numerare pisces
hic ubi ingenti modo sub procella
Cyclades pontum timuere motae.
nulla sors longa est; dolor ac uoluptas
inuicem cedunt; breuior uoluptas.
ima permutat leuis hora summis.

on this side and that, with sails spread, the skiffs, splendid, strewn, lay open for play,
and there is leisure to count the fish submerged,
here where just now beneath a huge squall
the Cyclades, set in motion, feared the sea.
no lot is long; pain and pleasure
yield to one another; pleasure is briefer.
a light hour exchanges the lowest with the highest.

ille qui donat diadema fronti,
quem genu nixae tremuere gentes, 600
cuius ad nutum posuere bella
et Dahae Parthis equitem minati,
anxius sceptrum tenet et mouentes
cuncta diuinat metuitque casus
mobiles rerum dubiumque tempus.
uos quibus rector maris atque terrae
ius dedit magnum necis atque uitae,
ponite inflatos tumidosque uultus:
quidquid a uobis minor expauescit, 610
maior hoc uobis dominus minatur;
omne sub regno grauiore regnum est.
quem dies uidit ueniens superbum,
hunc dies uidit fugiens iacentem.

he who gives the diadem to the brow,
before whom nations, leaning on the knee, have trembled, 600
at whose nod wars have been laid down
and the Dahae, threatening the Parthians with cavalry,
anxious, holds the scepter and, as all things move,
he divines and fears the shifting chances of affairs
and the dubious time.
you, to whom the ruler of sea and land
has given the great right of death and life,
put away inflated and swollen looks:
whatever the lesser shudders at from you, 610
with this a greater lord threatens you;
every reign is under a graver reign.
whom the day, coming, has seen proud,
him the day, fleeing, has seen lying low.

nemo confidat nimium secundis,
nemo desperet meliora lapsis:
miscet haec illis prohibetque Clotho
stare fortunam, rotat omne fatum.
nemo tam diuos habuit fauentes,
crastinum ut posset sibi polliceri: 620

let no one confide too much in favorable circumstances,
let no one despair of better things for the fallen:
Clotho mixes these with those and forbids
fortune to stand, she rotates every fate.
no one has had gods so favorable,
that he could promise the morrow to himself: 620

res deus nostras celeri citatas
turbine uersat.

God turns our affairs, sped along, by a swift whirlwind.

NVNTIVS: Quis me per auras turbo praecipitem uehet
atraque nube inuoluet, ut tantum nefas
eripiat oculis? O domus Pelopi quoque
et Tantalo pudenda! CHORVS: Quid portas noui?

MESSENGER: What whirlwind will carry me headlong through the airs
and wrap me in a black cloud, so that such a nefarious deed
may be snatched from my eyes? O house shameful even to Pelops
and to Tantalus! CHORUS: What news do you bring?

NVNTIVS: Quaenam ista regio est? Argos et Sparte, pios
sortita fratres, et maris gemini premens
fauces Corinthos, an feris Hister fugam
praebens Alanis, an sub aeterna niue 630
Hyrcana tellus, an uagi passim Scythae?
quis hic nefandi est conscius monstri locus?

MESSENGER: What region is this? Argos and Sparta, having by lot drawn pious brothers, and Corinth pressing the narrows of the twin seas, or the Danube affording flight to the savage Alans, or beneath eternal snow 630
the Hyrcanian land, or the wandering Scythians everywhere? What place here is privy to the unspeakable monstrosity?

CHORVS: Effare, et istud pande, quodcumque est, malum.
NVNTIVS: Si steterit animus, si metu corpus rigens
remittet artus. Haeret in uultu trucis
imago facti.

CHORUS: Speak out, and lay open that evil, whatever it is.
MESSENGER: If my spirit will stand firm, if my body rigid with fear will relax its limbs. The image of the savage deed clings to my face.

Ferte me insanae procul,
illo, procellae, ferte quo fertur dies
hinc raptus. CHORVS: Animos grauius incertos tenes.
quid sit quod horres ede et auctorem indica.

Bear me far away, mad ones,
thither, O storms, bear me where the day,
snatched from here, is borne. CHORVS: You hold minds more gravely uncertain.
tell what it is that you shudder at and indicate the author.

non quaero quis sit, sed uter. Effare ocius. 640
NVNTIVS: In arce summa Pelopiae pars est domus
conuersa ad Austros, cuius extremum latus
aequale monti crescit atque urbem premit
et contumacem regibus populum suis
habet sub ictu; fulget hic turbae capax
immane tectum, cuius auratas trabes
uariis columnae nobiles maculis ferunt.

I do not ask who he is, but which of the two. Speak out more swiftly. 640
MESSENGER: On the highest citadel there is a part of the Pelopian house
turned toward the South Winds, whose farthest side
grows equal to the mountain and weighs upon the city
and holds the populace, defiant to their own kings, within striking range;
here gleams an immense roof, capacious for a throng,
whose gilded beams noble columns bear
with various marblings.

post ista uulgo nota, quae populi colunt,
in multa diues spatia discedit domus;
arcana in imo regio secessu iacet, 650

after those things commonly known, which the peoples cultivate,
the house, rich, withdraws into many spaces;
an arcane region lies in the inmost recess, 650

alta uetustum ualle compescens nemus,
penetrale regni, nulla qua laetos solet
praebere ramos arbor aut ferro coli,
sed taxus et cupressus et nigra ilice
obscura nutat silua, quam supra eminens
despectat alte quercus et uincit nemus.
hinc auspicari regna Tantalidae solent,
hinc petere lapsis rebus ac dubiis opem.
affixa inhaerent dona; uocales tubae
fractique currus, spolia Myrtoi maris, 660
uictaeque falsis axibus pendent rotae
et omne gentis facinus; hoc Phrygius loco
fixus tiaras Pelopis, hic praeda hostium
et de triumpho picta barbarico chlamys.

a lofty grove that confines an ancient valley,
the inner sanctuary of the realm, where no tree is accustomed
to offer gladsome branches or to be cultivated by iron,
but yew and cypress, and with black holm-oak
the shadowy forest nods, which above, a towering
oak looks down upon from on high and overcomes the grove.
from here the Tantalids are wont to take the auspices for their reigns,
from here to seek help for fortunes fallen and doubtful.
offerings, fast affixed, cling; vocal trumpets,
broken chariots, the spoils of the Myrtoan sea, 660
and wheels, conquered, hang on mock axles,
and every crime of the clan; in this place the Phrygian
tiara of Pelops is fixed, here the prey of enemies
and a cloak, painted from barbaric triumph, the chlamys.

fons stat sub umbra tristis et nigra piger
haeret palude; talis est dirae Stygis
deformis unda quae facit caelo fidem.
hinc nocte caeca gemere feralis deos
fama est, catenis lucus excussis sonat
ululantque manes. Quidquid audire est metus 670
illic uidetur: errat antiquis uetus
emissa bustis turba et insultant loco
maiora notis monstra; quin tota solet
micare silua flamma, et excelsae trabes
ardent sine igne.

a fountain stands beneath a sad and black shade, sluggish,
it clings in the marsh; such is the deformed wave of dire Styx
which makes Heaven keep faith. From here, in blind night, the funereal gods
are said by report to groan; with chains shaken, the grove resounds,
and the Manes ululate. Whatever it is a fear to hear 670
is seen there: an old throng, sent forth from ancient tombs,
wanders, and monsters greater than the known leap upon the place;
nay rather the whole forest is wont to flicker with flame, and lofty beams
burn without fire.

Saepe latratu nemus
trino remugit, saepe simulacris domus
attonita magnis. Nec dies sedat metum;
nox propria luco est, et superstitio inferum
in luce media regnat. Hinc orantibus
responsa dantur certa, cum ingenti sono 680

Often the grove re-echoes with triple barking,
often the house is thunderstruck by great simulacra;
nor does day soothe the fear;
night is proper to the grove, and infernal superstition
reigns in the midst of daylight. Hence to those praying
sure responses are given, with an immense sound 680

laxantur adyto fata et immugit specus
uocem deo soluente. Quo postquam furens
intrauit Atreus liberos fratris trahens,
ornantur arae - quis queat digne eloqui?
post terga iuuenum nobiles reuocat manus
et maesta uitta capita purpurea ligat;
non tura desunt, non sacer Bacchi liquor
tangensque salsa uictimam culter mola.

the fates are unloosed in the adytum and the cavern bellows,
the deity releasing a voice. Thither, after he, raging,
had entered, Atreus dragging his brother’s children,
the altars are adorned - who could utter it worthily?
he draws the noble hands behind the youths’ backs
and binds their heads with a mournful purple fillet;
incense is not lacking, nor the sacred liquor of Bacchus,
and the knife touches the victim with salted meal.

seruatur omnis ordo, ne tantum nefas
non rite fiat. CHORVS: Quis manum ferro admouet? 690
NVNTIVS: Ipse est sacerdos, ipse funesta prece
letale carmen ore uiolento canit.

every order is preserved, that so great a nefarious deed may not be done without rite.
CHORVS: Who puts his hand to the steel? 690
NVNTIVS: It is the priest himself; he himself, with a funereal prayer,
chants the lethal chant with a violent mouth.

stat ipse ad aras, ipse deuotos neci
contrectat et componit et ferro admouet;
attendit ipse - nulla pars sacri perit.
lucus tremescit, tota succusso solo
nutauit aula, dubia quo pondus daret
ac fluctuanti similis; e laeuo aethere
atrum cucurrit limitem sidus trahens.
libata in ignes uina mutato fluunt 700
cruenta Baccho, regium capiti decus
bis terque lapsum est, fleuit in templis ebur.

he himself stands at the altars, he himself handles those devoted to death and arranges and brings them to the blade;
he himself attends—no part of the sacred rite perishes. The grove trembles, the whole hall, the ground having been shaken,
wavered, unsure where to give its weight and like one fluctuating; from the left-hand aether
a dark star ran, dragging a track. The wines, having been tasted, flow into the fires changed— 700
bloody to Bacchus, the royal adornment slipped from the head twice and thrice,
the ivory wept in the temples.

Mouere cunctos monstra, sed solus sibi
immotus Atreus constat, atque ultro deos
terret minantes. Iamque dimissa mora
adsistit aris, toruum et obliquum intuens.
ieiuna siluis qualis in Gangeticis
inter iuuencos tigris errauit duos,
utriusque praedae cupida quo primum ferat
incerta morsus (flectit hoc rictus suos, 710

Portents moved all, but Atreus alone stands unmoved in himself, and moreover he frightens the gods who threaten.
And now, delay dismissed, he takes his stand at the altars, gazing grim and askance.
As a fasting tiger in the Gangetic woods
has strayed between two young bulls,
desirous of the prey of either, uncertain to which first to carry her bites
(she turns her jaws this way, 710

illo reflectit et famem dubiam tenet),
sic dirus Atreus capita deuota impiae
speculatur irae. Quem prius mactet sibi
dubitat, secunda deinde quem caede immolet.
nec interest, sed dubitat et saeuum scelus
iuuat ordinare.

there he turns them and holds his wavering hunger),
so dire Atreus surveys the heads devoted to impious
wrath. whom he should first slaughter for himself
he hesitates, then whom he should immolate with the second slaughter.
it makes no difference, but he hesitates and the savage crime
it pleases him to order.

CHORVS: Quem tamen ferro occupat?
NVNTIVS: Primus locus (ne desse pietatem putes)
auo dicatur: Tantalus prima hostia est.
CHORVS: Quo iuuenis animo, quo tulit uultu necem?

CHORUS: Whom, however, does he seize with iron?
MESSENGER: Let the first place (lest you think piety is lacking) be assigned to the grandsire: Tantalus is the first victim.
CHORUS: With what spirit did the youth, with what visage, endure the killing?

NVNTIVS: Stetit sui securus et non est preces 720
perire frustra passus; ast illi ferus
in uulnere ensem abscondit et penitus premens
iugulo manum commisit: educto stetit
ferro cadauer, cumque dubitasset diu
hac parte an illa caderet, in patruum cadit.
tunc ille ad aras Plisthenem saeuus trahit
adicitque fratri; colla percussa amputat;
ceruice caesa truncus in pronum ruit,
querulum cucurrit murmure incerto caput.
CHORVS: Quid deinde gemina caede perfunctus facit?

NVNTIVS: He stood secure in himself and did not allow prayers to perish to no purpose 720
to die in vain; but at him the fierce one buried the sword in the wound,
and, pressing it deeply, committed his hand to the throat: with the iron drawn out
the cadaver stood, and when it had long hesitated whether it would fall on this side or that,
it falls upon his uncle. Then he savagely drags Plisthenes to the altars
and adds him to his brother; he hews off the struck necks;
with the neck severed the trunk falls forward,
the head ran with a querulous, uncertain murmur.
CHORVS: What then does he do, having been finished with the twin slaughter?

730
puerone parcit, an scelus sceleri ingerit?
NVNTIVS: Silua iubatus qualis Armenia leo
in caede multa uictor armento incubat
(cruore rictus madidus et pulsa fame
non ponit iras: hinc et hinc tauros premens
uitulis minatur dente iam lasso piger),
non aliter Atreus saeuit atque ira tumet,
ferrumque gemina caede perfusum tenens,
oblitus in quem fureret, infesta manu
exegit ultra corpus, ac pueri statim 740

730
does he spare the boy, or does he heap crime upon crime?
MESSENGER: Like an Armenian lion, with mane bristling in the forest,
victor amid much slaughter, he broods over the herd
(with jaws dripping wet with gore, and with hunger driven off
he does not lay down his angers: pressing bulls on this side and that,
slow, with tooth now wearied, he threatens the calves),
no otherwise does Atreus rage and swell with wrath,
and holding the steel drenched with double slaughter,
forgetful on whom he raged, with hostile hand
he drove it through beyond the body, and straightway of the boy 740

pectore receptus ensis in tergo exstitit;
cadit ille et aras sanguine extinguens suo
per utrumque uulnus moritur. CHORVS: O saeuum scelus!
NVNTIVS: Exhorruistis?

the sword, received in his breast, stood out in his back;
he falls and, extinguishing the altars with his own blood,
he dies through both wounds. CHORVS: O savage crime!
NVNTIVS: Have you shuddered?

hactenus si stat nefas,
pius est. CHORVS: An ultra maius aut atrocius
natura recipit? NVNTIVS: Sceleris hunc finem putas?

thus far, if the nefas stands, he is pious.
CHORVS: Does nature admit beyond this anything greater or more atrocious?
NVNTIVS: Do you think this the end of the crime?

gradus est. CHORVS: Quid ultra potuit? Obiecit feris
lanianda forsan corpora atque igne arcuit?

it is a step. CHORVS: What more could he do? Did he perhaps throw the bodies to wild beasts to be torn, and keep them from fire?

NVNTIVS: Vtinam arcuisset! ne tegat functos humus
nec soluat ignis! auibus epulandos licet 750
ferisque triste pabulum saeuis trahat -
uotum est sub hoc quod esse supplicium solet -
pater insepultos spectet!

NVNTIVS: Would that he had warded it off! let not the soil cover the departed
nor let fire dissolve them! let him drag them to be feasted by birds 750
and, for savage beasts, as grim fodder -
the vow is, under that which is wont to be a punishment -
let the father behold them unburied!

o nullo scelus
credibile in aeuo quodque posteritas neget:
erepta uiuis exta pectoribus tremunt
spirantque uenae corque adhuc pauidum salit.
at ille fibras tractat ac fata inspicit
et adhuc calentes uiscerum uenas notat.
postquam hostiae placuere, securus uacat
iam fratris epulis.

O a crime believable in no age, and which posterity will deny:
the entrails, snatched from living breasts, tremble,
and the veins breathe, and the heart, still timorous, leaps.
But he handles the fibers and inspects the fates,
and notes the still-warm veins of the viscera.
After the victims have proved pleasing, carefree he turns
now to his brother’s banquet.

Ipse diuisum secat 760
in membra corpus, amputat trunco tenus
umeros patentis et lacertorum moras,
denudat artus durus atque ossa amputat;
tantum ora seruat et datas fidei manus.
haec ueribus haerent uiscera et lentis data
stillant caminis, illa flammatus latex
candente aeno iactat. Impositas dapes
transiluit ignis inque trepidantes focos
bis ter regestus et pati iussus moram
inuitus ardet.

He himself cuts the body, divided, into limbs, 760
he amputates the shoulders down to the trunk and the stretches of the upper arms,
hard, he denudes the limbs and amputates the bones;
he only spares the faces and the hands given in pledge of faith.
these viscera cling to the spits and, consigned to slow furnaces,
drip, those others a flamed liquor tosses in a white-hot bronze cauldron.
the fire leaped over the viands set on, and into the trembling hearths
twice and thrice driven back and ordered to suffer delay,
unwilling it burns.

Stridet in ueribus iecur; 770

The liver sizzles on the spits; 770

nec facile dicas corpora an flammae magis
gemuere. Piceos ignis in fumos abit;
et ipse fumus, tristis ac nebula grauis,
non rectus exit, seque in excelsum leuat -
ipsos penates nube deformi obsidet.
O Phoebe patiens, fugeris retro licet
medioque raptum merseris caelo diem,
sero occidisti.

nor would you easily say whether the bodies or the flames groaned more.
The fire passes into pitchy smokes;
and the smoke itself, gloomy and a heavy nebula,
does not issue straight, and lifts itself aloft -
it besieges the very Penates with a misshapen cloud.
O patient Phoebus, though you have fled backward
and have plunged the day, snatched from mid-sky, beneath the heavens,
you have set too late.

Lancinat natos pater
artusque mandit ore funesto suos;
nitet fluente madidus unguento comam 780
grauisque uino; saepe praeclusae cibum
tenuere fauces - in malis unum hoc tuis
bonum est, Thyesta, quod mala ignoras tua.
sed et hoc peribit. Verterit currus licet
sibi ipse Titan obuium ducens iter
tenebrisque facinus obruat taetrum nouis
nox missa ab ortu tempore alieno grauis,
tamen uidendum est.

The father rends his sons,
and with a funereal mouth he chews his own limbs;
he gleams, his hair dripping with flowing unguent 780
and heavy with wine; often his choked throat
has held back the food — in your ills this one thing
is good, Thyestes: that you are ignorant of your ills.
but even this will perish. Though Titan should turn
his chariot about, drawing a course to meet himself,
and bury the foul crime with new darkness,
a night, heavy, sent from the East at an alien time,
yet it must be seen.

Tota patefient mala.

All the evils will be laid bare.

CHORVS: Quo terrarum superumque potens,
cuius ad ortus noctis opacae 790
decus omne fugit, quo uertis iter
medioque diem perdis Olympo?
cur, Phoebe, tuos rapis aspectus?
nondum serae nuntius horae
nocturna uocat lumina Vesper;
nondum Hesperiae flexura rotae
iubet emeritos soluere currus;
nondum in noctem uergente die
tertia misit bucina signum:
stupet ad subitae tempora cenae 800
nondum fessis bubus arator.

CHORVS: Whither, potent over the lands and the gods above,
at whose risings all the adornment of shadowy night 790
all flees away—whither do you turn your path,
and lose the day in mid-Olympus?
why, Phoebus, do you snatch away your aspect?
not yet does Vesper, messenger of the late hour,
call forth the nocturnal lights;
not yet does the bending of the Hesperian wheel
bid the outworn chariots be loosed from the yoke;
not yet, as the day inclines toward night,
has the third trumpet sent the signal:
the ploughman stands amazed at the time for a sudden supper, 800
his oxen not yet weary.

Quid te aetherio pepulit cursu?
quae causa tuos limite certo
deiecit equos? numquid aperto
carcere Ditis uicti temptant
bella Gigantes?

What has driven you from your ethereal course?
what cause has cast down your horses from their fixed track?
is it perhaps that, with the prison of Dis opened,
the vanquished Giants attempt wars?

numquid Tityos
pectore fesso renouat ueteres
saucius iras? num reiecto
latus explicuit monte Typhoeus?
numquid struitur uia Phlegraeos 810

Is it that Tityus
with a weary breast renews the ancient
wounded, wraths? Is it that, the mountain cast off,
Typhoeus has unfurled his flank?
Is a road being built to the Phlegraean plains 810

alta per hostes et Thessalicum
Thressa premitur Pelion Ossa?
Solitae mundi periere uices?
nihil occasus, nihil ortus erit?

Is lofty Thracian Ossa through the hosts being pressed by Thessalian Pelion?
Have the accustomed vicissitudes of the world perished?
Will there be nothing of setting, nothing of rising?

Stupet Eoos assueta deo
tradere frenos genetrix primae
roscida lucis peruersa sui
limina regni; nescit fessos
tinguere currus nec fumantes
sudore iubas mergere ponto. 820
ipse insueto nouus hospitio
Sol Auroram uidet occiduus
tenebrasque iubet surgere nondum
nocte parata: non succedunt
astra nec ullo micat igne polus,
non Luna graues digerit umbras.
Sed quidquid id est, utinam nox sit!

Astonished stands the genetrix of the first dewy light,
accustomed to hand over the reins to the Eoan god, with the
thresholds of her own realm perverted; she does not know to dip the tired
chariots nor to plunge in the sea the manes
smoking with sweat. 820
he himself, the setting Sun, new to the unaccustomed lodging,
sees Aurora and bids the darknesses to rise, with night
not yet prepared: the stars do not succeed,
nor does the pole sparkle with any fire,
nor does the Moon distribute the heavy shades.
But whatever it is, would that it be night!

trepidant, trepidant pectora magno
percussa metu: ne fatali cuncta ruina 830
quassata labent iterumque deos
hominesque premat deforme chaos,
iterum terras et mare cingens
et uaga picti sidera mundi
natura tegat. Non aeternae
facis exortu dux astrorum
saecula ducens dabit aestatis
brumaeque notas, non Phoebeis
obuia flammis demet nocti
Luna timores uincetque sui 840

they tremble, they tremble, hearts smitten with great
fear: lest all things, shattered by fatal ruin 830
shattered collapse, and again gods
and men be pressed down by misshapen chaos,
again the lands and the sea encircling
and the wandering stars of the painted world
nature may cover. not of the eternal
torch’s rising will the leader of the stars,
who leads the ages, will give the marks of summer
and of winter; nor, meeting Phoebean
flames, will the moon shear from night
the fears, and will conquer her own 840

fratris habenas curuo breuius
limite currens. Ibit in unum
congesta sinum turba deorum.
hic qui sacris peruius astris
secat obliquo tramite zonas,
flectens longos signifer annos,
lapsa uidebit sidera labens;
hic qui nondum uere benigno
reddit Zephyro uela tepenti
Aries praeceps ibit in undas,                               850
per quas pauidam uexerat Hellen;
hic qui nitido Taurus cornu
praefert Hyadas, secum Geminos
trahet et curui bracchia Cancri;
Leo flammiferis aestibus ardens
iterum e caelo cadet Herculeus,
cadet in terras Virgo relictas
iustaeque cadent pondera Librae
secumque trahent Scorpion acrem.
et qui neruo tenet Haemonio                               860
pinnata senex spicula Chiron,
rupto perdet spicula neruo;
pigram referens hiemem gelidus
cadet Aegoceros frangetque tuam,
quisquis es, urnam; tecum excedent
ultima caeli sidera Pisces,
monstraque numquam perfusa mari
merget condens omnia gurges;
et qui medias diuidit Vrsas,
fluminis instar lubricus Anguis                               870

the one running in a curved path more briefly than his brother’s reins.
Into a single fold will go the throng of the gods, heaped together.
Here he who, pervious among the sacred stars,
cuts the zones on an oblique track,
bending the long years of the sign-bearing zodiac,
slipping, will behold the fallen stars as he himself slips;
here he who not yet in kindly spring
gives back the sails to the tepid Zephyr—
Aries headlong will go into the waves,                              850
through which he had vexed fearful Helle;
here Taurus, who with shining horn
bears the Hyades before him, will drag with himself the Twins
and the arms of curving Cancer;
the Herculean Lion, burning with fire-bearing heats,
will fall again from heaven,
the Virgin will fall onto the forsaken lands,
and the weights of just Libra will fall,
and with them they will drag the sharp Scorpion.
And old Chiron, who with Haemonian string                              860
holds feathered darts, with the string broken will lose his darts;
the gelid Aegoceros, bringing back the sluggish winter,
will fall and will shatter your urn, whoever you are;
with you there will depart the furthest stars of the sky, Pisces,
and a gulf, compressing all, will plunge the monsters
never drenched by the sea;
and the slippery Serpent, like a river,
who divides the middle of the Bears,                              870

magnoque minor iuncta Draconi
frigida duro Cynosura gelu,
custosque sui tardus plaustri
iam non stabilis ruet Arctophylax.
Nos e tanto uisi populo
digni, premeret quos euerso
cardine mundus? in nos aetas ultima uenit?

and the lesser, joined to the great Dragon,
chill Cynosure, rigid with hard frost,
and the slow guardian of his own wain,
Arctophylax, now no longer steady, will fall headlong.
Are we, out of so great a populace, deemed
worthy, we whom the world, with its axis overturned,
should press down? Has the last age come upon us?

o nos dura sorte creatos,
seu perdidimus solem miseri, 880
siue expulimus! abeant questus, discede timor!
uitae est auidus quisquis non uult
mundo secum pereunte mori.

o we, created by a hard lot,
whether we wretches have lost the sun, 880
or have driven it out! let laments depart, withdraw, fear!
he is avid for life whoever does not wish
to die with the world perishing along with him.

ATREVS: Aequalis astris gradior et cunctos super
altum superbo uertice attingens polum.
nunc decora regni teneo, nunc solium patris.
dimitto superos; summa uotorum attigi.

ATREVS: I stride equal to the stars and over all,
touching the high pole with a proud head.
now I hold the honors of the kingdom, now my father’s throne.
I dismiss the gods above; I have attained the summit of my vows.

bene est, abunde est, iam sat est etiam mihi.
sed cur satis sit? pergam et impleto patre 890
funere suorum.

it is well, there is abundance, now it is enough even for me.
but why should it be enough? I shall proceed and, the father filled up with the funeral of his own, 890

Ne quid obstaret pudor,
dies recessit: perge dum caelum uacat.
utinam quidem tenere fugientes deos
possem, et coactos trahere, ut ultricem dapem
omnes uiderent! quod sat est, uideat pater.

Lest any shame stand in the way,
the day has withdrawn: proceed while heaven is vacant.
Would that indeed I could hold the fleeing gods,
and drag them, constrained, so that all might see the avenging banquet!
What is enough: let the father see.

etiam die nolente discutiam tibi
tenebras, miseriae sub quibus latitant tuae.
nimis diu conuiua securo iaces
hilarique uultu; iam satis mensis datum est
satisque Baccho; sobrio tanta ad mala 900
opus est Thyeste. Turba famularis, fores
templi relaxa, festa patefiat domus.

even with the day unwilling I will dispel for you
the darkness under which your miseries lurk.
too long you lie, a banquet-guest, carefree
and with a cheerful countenance; now enough has been given to the tables
and enough to Bacchus; for such great evils a sober 900
Thyestes is needed. Servant throng, the doors
of the temple unfasten, let the festive house be thrown open.

libet uidere, capita natorum intuens,
quos det colores, uerba quae primus dolor
effundat aut ut spiritu expulso stupens
corpus rigescat. Fructus hic operis mei est.
miserum uidere nolo, sed dum fit miser.

It pleases me to see, gazing upon the heads of his sons,
what colors he will give, what words first pain
will pour forth, or how, his breath expelled, stupefied
his body will grow rigid. This is the fruit of my work.
I do not wish to see him wretched, but while he becomes wretched.

Aperta multa tecta conlucent face.
resupinus ipse purpurae atque auro incubat,
uino grauatum fulciens laeua caput. 910

Many open roofs glow with torchlight.
resupine he himself lies upon purple and gold,
propping with his left hand his head weighed down with wine. 910

eructat. O me caelitum excelsissimum,
regumque regem! uota transcendi mea.

he belches. O me, the most exalted of the celestials,
and king of kings! I have transcended my vows.

satur est; capaci ducit argento merum -
ne parce potu; restat etiamnunc cruor
tot hostiarum; ueteris hunc Bacchi color
abscondet. Hoc, hoc mensa claudatur scypho.
mixtum suorum sanguinem genitor bibat:
meum bibisset.

he is sated; he draws neat wine into capacious silver vessel -
do not be sparing with drink; even now the gore remains
of so many victims; the color of aged Bacchus
will hide it. This, this let the table be closed with a goblet.
let the father drink the mingled blood of his own;
he would have drunk mine.

Ecce, iam cantus ciet
festasque uoces, nec satis menti imperat.
THYESTES: Pectora longis hebetata malis, 920
iam sollicitas ponite curas.
fugiat maeror fugiatque pauor,
fugiat trepidi comes exilii
tristis egestas rebusque grauis
pudor afflictis; magis unde cadas
quam quo refert.

Behold, already he rouses song
and festal voices, nor does he sufficiently command his mind.
THYESTES: Hearts dulled by long evils, 920
now set down your anxious cares.
let grief flee and let fear flee,
let sad indigence, companion of the timorous exile, flee,
and shame heavy upon afflicted fortunes;
it matters more whence you fall
than whither.

Magnum, ex alto
culmine lapsum stabilem in plano
figere gressum; magnum, ingenti
strage malorum pressum fracti
pondera regni non inflexa 930
ceruice pati, nec degenerem
uictumque malis rectum impositas
ferre ruinas. Sed iam saeui
nubila fati pelle ac miseri
temporis omnes dimitte notas;
redeant uultus ad laeta boni,
ueterem ex animo mitte Thyesten.
Proprium hoc miseros sequitur uitium,
numquam rebus credere laetis:
redeat felix fortuna licet, 940

Great, from a high
summit, having fallen, to fix a stable step on the level; great, pressed by the vast
wreckage of evils, to endure with an unbent
neck the weights of a shattered
kingdom, and, not degenerate nor conquered by ills, upright, to bear the ruins imposed. 930
But now drive away the clouds
of savage fate and dismiss all the marks
of a wretched time;
let the features of the good return to gladness,
send the old Thyestes from your mind.
This peculiar vice follows the wretched,
never to trust in happy circumstances:
though fortunate Fortune return, 940

tamen afflictos gaudere piget.
quid me reuocas festumque uetas
celebrare diem, quid flere iubes,
nulla surgens dolor ex causa?
quis me prohibet flore decenti
uincire comam?

yet it irks the afflicted to rejoice.
why do you call me back and forbid me
to celebrate the festal day, why do you bid me weep,
no grief arising from any cause?
who prohibits me from binding my hair
with a becoming flower?

prohibet, prohibet
uernae capiti fluxere rosae,
pingui madidus crinis amomo
inter subitos stetit horrores,
imber uultu nolente cadit, 950
uenit in medias uoces gemitus.
maeror lacrimas amat assuetas,
flendi miseris dira cupido est.
libet infaustos mittere questus,
libet et Tyrio saturas ostro
rumpere uestes, ululare libet.

it forbids, it forbids
vernal roses have flowed upon the head,
the hair, drenched with rich amomum,
stood amid sudden horrors,
a rain falls upon an unwilling face, 950
a groan comes into the midst of words.
mourning loves accustomed tears,
for the wretched there is a dire desire of weeping.
it is pleasing to send forth ill-omened complaints,
and it is pleasing to tear garments saturated with Tyrian purple,
it is pleasing to howl.

Mittit luctus signa futuri
mens ante sui praesaga mali:
instat nautis fera tempestas,
cum sine uento tranquilla tument. 960
quos tibi luctus quosue tumultus
fingis, demens? credula praesta
pectora fratri.

Grief sends signs of what is to come;
the mind, presaging beforehand its own ill:
a fierce tempest presses upon sailors,
when, without wind, the tranquil waters swell. 960
what griefs for yourself, or what tumults,
do you fashion, mad one? be credulous, present
your breast to your brother.

Iam, quidquid id est,
uel sine causa uel sero times.
nolo infelix, sed uagus intra
terror oberrat, subitos fundunt
oculi fletus, nec causa subest.
dolor an metus est?

Already, whatever it is,
either without cause or too late you are afraid.
I do not wish to be ill-fated, but within
a wandering terror roves; my eyes
pour sudden tears, nor does a cause lie beneath.
Is it grief or is it fear?

An habet lacrimas
magna uoluptas?
ATREVS: Festum diem, germane, consensu pari 970

Does great pleasure
have tears?
ATREUS: A festal day, brother, with equal consent 970

celebremus; hic est, sceptra qui firmet mea
solidamque pacis alliget certae fidem.
THYESTES: Satias dapis me nec minus Bacchi tenet.
augere cumulus hic uoluptatem potest,
si cum meis gaudere felici datur.

let us celebrate; this is the day which will strengthen my scepters and bind the solid pledge of sure peace.
THYESTES: Satiety of the feast holds me, and no less does Bacchus.
this heaping-up can augment pleasure,
if it is granted to rejoice happily with my own.

ATREVS: Hic esse natos crede in amplexu patris;
hic sunt eruntque; nulla pars prolis tuae
tibi subtrahetur. Ora quae exoptas dabo
totumque turba iam sua implebo patrem.
satiaberis, ne metue.

ATREVS: Believe your sons to be here in their father’s embrace;
here they are and will be; no part of your progeny
will be taken away from you. The faces you long for I will grant,
and I will now fill the father wholly with his own throng.
you will be satiated; do not fear.

Nunc mixti meis 980
iucunda mensae sacra iuuenilis colunt;
sed accientur. Poculum infuso cape
gentile Baccho. THYESTES: Capio fraternae dapis
donum.

Now, mingled with mine, they celebrate the jocund sacred rites of the juvenile table; 980
but they will be summoned. Take the cup with kindred Bacchus poured in.
THYESTES: I take the gift of a fraternal banquet.

Paternis uina libentur deis,
tunc hauriantur. - sed quid hoc? nolunt manus
parere, crescit pondus et dextram grauat;
admotus ipsis Bacchus a labris fugit
circaque rictus ore decepto fluit,
et ipsa trepido mensa subsiluit solo.

Let wines be poured in libation to the paternal gods,
then let them be drained. - but what is this? My hands
are unwilling to obey; the weight grows and weighs down my right hand;
Bacchus, when brought to my very lips, flees from them,
and, with the mouth deceived, it flows around the gaping jaws,
and the table itself leapt from the trembling floor.

uix lucet ignis; ipse quin aether grauis 990
inter diem noctemque desertus stupet.
quid hoc? magis magisque concussi labant
conuexa caeli; spissior densis coit
caligo tenebris noxque se in noctem abdidit:
fugit omne sidus.

scarcely does the fire shine; nay, the heavy aether itself 990
left deserted between day and night, stands stupefied.
what is this? more and more the shaken convexities of the sky totter;
thicker, the caliginous gloom coalesces into dense tenebrous darkness,
and night has hidden itself in night:
every star flees.

Quidquid est, fratri precor
natisque parcat, omnis in uile hoc caput
abeat procella. Redde iam natos mihi!
ATREVS: Reddam, et tibi illos nullus eripiet dies.

Whatever it is, I pray it may spare my brother and my sons; let every tempest pass onto this vile head. Give me back my sons now!
ATREUS: I will give them back, and no day will tear them away from you.

THYESTES: Quis hic tumultus uiscera exagitat mea?
quid tremuit intus? sentio impatiens onus 1000

THYESTES: What tumult is this that agitates my viscera?
what trembled within? I sense an impatient onus 1000

meumque gemitu non meo pectus gemit.
adeste, nati, genitor infelix uocat,
adeste. Visis fugiet hic uobis dolor -
unde obloquuntur?

and my breast groans with a groan not my own.
be present, sons, the unhappy father calls,
be present. At the sight this pain will flee from you -
whence do they speak against?

ATREVS: Expedi amplexus, pater;
uenere. - natos ecquid agnoscis tuos?
THYESTES: Agnosco fratrem.

ATREVS: Unloose your embraces, father;
they have come. - Do you at all recognize your sons?
THYESTES: I recognize my brother.

Sustines tantum nefas
gestare, Tellus? non ad infernam Styga
tenebrasque mergis rupta et ingenti uia
ad chaos inane regna cum rege abripis?
non tota ab imo tecta conuellens solo 1010
uertis Mycenas?

Do you sustain such a nefarious crime
to bear, Earth? Do you not plunge to the infernal Styx
and the shades, by a path burst open and immense,
and snatch away to void Chaos the realms together with their king?
do you not, convulsing the roofs wholly from the lowest ground 1010
overturn Mycenae?

stare circa Tantalum
uterque iam debuimus. Hinc compagibus
et hinc reuulsis, si quid infra Tartara est
auosque nostros, hoc tuam immani sinu
demitte uallem nosque defossos tege
Acheronte toto. Noxiae supra caput
animae uagentur nostrum et ardenti freto
Phlegethon harenas igneus totas agens
exilia supra nostra uiolentus fluat -
immota tellus pondus ignauum iacet, 1020
fugere superi.

we both already have deserved to stand around Tantalus.
With the joints here and there torn apart, if there is anything below Tartarus
and our ancestors, lower this valley of yours into your monstrous bosom,
and cover us, buried, with the whole Acheron. Let the guilty souls
wander above our head, and on a burning strait let Phlegethon,
fiery, driving along all the sands, flow violent above our exile -
the motionless earth lies a slothful weight, 1020
the gods above have fled.

ATREVS: Iam accipe hos potius libens
diu expetitos: nulla per fratrem est mora;
fruere, osculare, diuide amplexus tribus.
THYESTES: Hoc foedus? haec est gratia, haec fratris fides?

ATREUS: Now receive these rather, gladly, long-sought: there is no delay on the brother’s part;
enjoy, kiss, divide your embraces among the three.
THYESTES: Is this the pact? Is this the favor, this a brother’s fidelity?

sic odia ponis? non peto, incolumis pater
natos ut habeam; scelere quod saluo dari
odioque possit, frater hoc fratrem rogo:
sepelire liceat. Redde quod cernas statim
uri; nihil te genitor habiturus rogo,
sed perditurus.

Is this how you lay aside hatreds? I do not seek, as an unharmed father,
to have my sons; what can be given with your crime and your hate kept safe,
brother—this I, a brother, ask of a brother: let it be permitted to bury them.
Give back what you see will straightway be burned; I, their father, ask you for nothing
you will keep, but what you are about to lose.

ATREVS: Quidquid e natis tuis 1030

ATREUS: Whatever of your sons 1030

superest habes, quodcumque non superest habes.
THYESTES: Vtrumne saeuis pabulum alitibus iacent,
an beluis seruantur, an pascunt feras?
ATREVS: Epulatus ipse es impia natos dape.

what remains you have; whatever does not remain you have.
THYESTES: Do they lie as fodder for savage birds, or are they reserved for beasts, or do they feed the wild creatures?
ATREUS: You yourself have feasted on your sons with an impious banquet.

THYESTES: Hoc est deos quod puduit, hoc egit diem
auersum in ortus. Quas miser uoces dabo
questusque quos? quae uerba sufficient mihi?

THYESTES: This is what put the gods to shame; this drove the day
turned back to its rising. What voices shall I, wretched, give,
and what complaints? what words will suffice for me?

abscisa cerno capita et auulsas manus
et rupta fractis cruribus uestigia -
hoc est quod auidus capere non potuit pater. 1040
uoluuntur intus uiscera et clusum nefas
sine exitu luctatur et quaerit fugam.
da, frater, ensem (sanguinis multum mei
habet ille) ferro liberis detur uia.

I discern severed heads and torn-off hands
and feet broken, with shins fractured -
this is what the greedy father could not stomach. 1040
within, the viscera roll, and the enclosed abomination
struggles without exit and seeks escape.
give, brother, the sword (it holds much of my blood);
let a way be given to my children by iron.

negatur ensis? pectora inliso sonent
contusa planctu - sustine, infelix, manum,
parcamus umbris. Tale quis uidit nefas?

Is a sword denied? Let the breasts, contused by beating, resound
- hold back, ill-fated one, your hand,
let us spare the shades. Who has seen such a nefarious deed?

quis inhospitalis Caucasi rupem asperam
Heniochus habitans quisue Cecropiis metus
terris Procrustes? genitor en natos premo 1050
premorque natis - sceleris est aliquis modus?
ATREVS: Sceleri modus debetur ubi facias scelus,
non ubi reponas.

Who, an Heniochus dwelling on the rough crag of inhospitable Caucasus,
or Procrustes, a terror to the Cecropian lands? Behold, as a father I press my sons 1050
and am pressed by my sons - is there any measure of crime?
ATREUS: A measure is owed to crime when you commit a crime,
not when you repay it.

Hoc quoque exiguum est mihi.
ex uulnere ipso sanguinem calidum in tua
defundere ora debui, ut uiuentium
biberes cruorem - uerba sunt irae data
dum propero. Ferro uulnera impresso dedi,
cecidi ad aras, caede uotiua focos
placaui, et artus, corpora exanima amputans,
in parua carpsi frusta et haec feruentibus 1060

This too is scant for me.
from the very wound I ought to have poured the hot blood into your mouth,
so that you might drink the gore of the living — words were given to wrath
while I hurry. With steel driven in I dealt the wounds,
I struck them down at the altars, with votive slaughter I appeased
the hearths, and, amputating the limbs from lifeless bodies,
I tore them into small pieces, and these in the boiling 1060

demersi aenis; illa lentis ignibus
stillare iussi. Membra neruosque abscidi
uiuentibus, gracilique traiectas ueru
mugire fibras uidi et aggessi manu
mea ipse flammas. Omnia haec melius pater
fecisse potuit, cecidit in cassum dolor:
scidit ore natos impio, sed nesciens,
sed nescientes.

I plunged them in brazen cauldrons; I ordered those to distil on slow fires.
I cut off limbs and sinews from the living,
and I saw the fibers, transfixed on a slender spit, bellow;
and I myself heaped the flames with my own hand. Their father could have done all these things better; my pain has fallen to nothing:
he tore his sons with an impious mouth—yet unknowing, and they unknowing.

THYESTES: Clausa litoribus uagis
audite maria, uos quoque audite hoc scelus,
quocumque, di, fugistis; audite inferi, 1070
audite terrae, Noxque Tartarea grauis
et atra nube, uocibus nostris uaca
(tibi sum relictus, sola tu miserum uides,
tu quoque sine astris), uota non faciam improba.
pro me nihil precabor - et quid iam potest
pro me esse? Vobis uota prospicient mea.

THYESTES: O seas enclosed by roving shores, listen;
you too, hear this crime, wherever, O gods, you have fled; hear, infernal ones, 1070
hear, O lands, and Tartarean Night, heavy and with a black cloud,
be free for our voices (to you I am left, you alone see the wretched man,
you too without stars); I will not make impious vows.
For myself I will pray for nothing— and what now can there be
for me? My vows shall look out for you.

tu, summe caeli rector, aetheriae potens
dominator aulae, nubibus totum horridis
conuolue mundum, bella uentorum undique
committe et omni parte uiolentum intona, 1080
manuque non qua tecta et immeritas domos
telo petis minore, sed qua montium
tergemina moles cecidit et qui montibus
stabant pares Gigantes, hac arma expedi
ignesque torque. Vindica amissum diem,
iaculare flammas, lumen ereptum polo
fulminibus exple. Causa, ne dubites diu,
utriusque mala sit; si minus, mala sit mea:
me pete, trisulco flammeam telo facem
per pectus hoc transmitte.

you, highest ruler of heaven, mighty
lord of the aetherial hall, with grim clouds
roll together the whole world, set wars of the winds on every side
and thunder violent from every quarter, 1080
and not with the hand with which roofs and undeserving homes
you assail with the lesser missile, but with that by which the triple mass
of the mountains fell and the Giants who stood
peers to the mountains— with this hand ready your arms
and whirl your fires. Vindicate the day that was lost,
hurl flames; the light snatched from the sky
fill up with thunderbolts. Let the cause—do not doubt long—
be the evil of both; if not, let the evil be mine:
aim at me; with the three-pronged weapon, the fiery torch,
send it through this breast.

Si natos pater 1090

If the father has sons 1090

humare et igni tradere extremo uolo,
ego sum cremandus. Si nihil superos mouet
nullumque telis impios numen petit,
aeterna nox permaneat et tenebris tegat
immensa longis scelera. Nil, Titan, queror,
si perseueras.

to bury and to commit to the final fire I wish,
I am the one to be cremated. If nothing moves the gods above
and no divinity with weapons seeks the impious,
let eternal night remain and with long darkness cover
the immense crimes. Nothing, Titan, do I complain,
if you persevere.

ATREVS: Nunc meas laudo manus,
nunc parta uera est palma. Perdideram scelus,
nisi sic doleres. Liberos nasci mihi
nunc credo, castis nunc fidem reddi toris.

ATREUS: Now I praise my hands,
now the true palm has been won. I should have lost my crime,
unless you grieved thus. Now I believe children are being born to me;
now faith is being restored to chaste couches.

THYESTES: Quid liberi meruere? ATREVS: Quod fuerant tui. 1100
THYESTES: Natos parenti - ATREVS: Fateor, et, quod me iuuat,
certos.

THYESTES: What did the children deserve? ATREUS: That they had been yours. 1100
THYESTES: Sons to their parent - ATREUS: I admit it, and—what pleases me—certain.

THYESTES: Piorum praesides testor deos.
ATREVS: Quin coniugales? THYESTES: Scelere quis pensat scelus?

THYESTES: I call as witnesses the gods, guardians of the pious.
ATREUS: Why not the conjugal ones? THYESTES: Who compensates crime with crime?

ATREVS: Scio quid queraris: scelere praerepto doles,
nec quod nefandas hauseris angit dapes;
quod non pararis. Fuerat hic animus tibi
instruere similes inscio fratri cibos
et adiuuante liberos matre aggredi
similique leto sternere - hoc unum obstitit -
tuos putasti. THYESTES: Vindices aderunt dei; 1110
his puniendum uota te tradunt mea.

ATREVS: I know what you complain of: you grieve that the crime was preempted,
nor does it vex you that you have quaffed nefarious banquets;
it is that you did not prepare them. This intention had been yours:
to arrange similar foods for your unknowing brother,
and, the mother aiding, to assault the children
and to strew them with a like lethal death — this one thing stood in the way —
you supposed them yours. THYESTES: Avenging gods will come; 1110
to these my vows hand you over for punishment.

ATREVS: Te puniendum liberis trado tuis.

ATREVS: I hand you over to your children to be punished.

FINIS

THE END